The speed of the camera

- ISO is a measurement of how light sensitive…or fast a camera is.…We have to talk about the speed of a camera…because it's not enough to take the manufacturer's word…for what it's native ISO or speed is.…The speed of a camera is the basis of the decisions…a cinematographer has to make about exposure and lighting.…At the manufacturer's native ISO…you might find the camera too noisy…or not noisy enough.…Maybe the camera just doesn't look right…for your film at that ISO.…

If you're shooting a film like Force Majuere,…which is about a family ski vacation in the French Alps,…at the recommended ISO you might feel…it just doesn't have enough detail in the highlights…because so many of your shots…will involve scenes in the snow.…If you're shooting a film like Matewan,…about West Virginia coal miners,…you might want more detail in the shadows…because so much of the film is shot…in dark sooty coal mines.…

In order to adjust the exposure of the camera…to suit the needs of a particular film…you have to know how fast it really is in the first place.…

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Released

9/30/2016

Creative decision making lies at the core of great filmmaking. To shoot a movie, you need to understand how the equipment works, but more importantly, you need to know how the choices you make—composition, exposure, lighting, etc.—impact the way the audience sees the film. The Cinematography series with Bill Dill covers the basics you need to shoot a modern motion picture and tell stories in the most powerful way possible. Part 1 concentrates on narrative filmmaking: creating a world from scratch, using a script. Bill, an ASC cinematographer and professor of film and media arts at Chapman University, introduces the techniques that professional filmmakers use to maintain the illusion of reality in the middle of an otherwise artificial world.

Follow along and learn the fundamentals required to shoot a story with a camera. Learn how to plan your production, assemble a crew, choose the right camera and lenses, and make creative choices that best fit the themes, characters, and story of your film. Bill covers the elements of composition, exposure, optics, lighting, and camera movement. Part 2 (coming in November 2016) will show you how to put all these ideas together on set, and deliver the footage to an editor and director for assembly into a complete, coherent, and compelling story.